2 Sides in Mideast Resume Public Meetings

By STEVEN ERLANGER

Published: January 27, 2005

Senior Israeli and Palestinian aides resumed public meetings on Wednesday and Israel agreed to suspend the pinpoint killings of Palestinian militants, further signs of warming relations with the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

The meeting of the senior aides, who in private never actually broke contact, was announced as an American diplomat, William J. Burns, arrived here after talks with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

Mr. Burns, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said, ''The U.S. is determined to do everything we can to contribute to the opportunity of progress between the Palestinians and Israelis.'' He said he and Mr. Mubarak ''agreed that we have the most promising opportunity for progress for several years.''

That is a wind from two countries the Israelis cannot ignore, and it is a message being repeated in Washington to two visiting Israeli officials, the foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, and the head of the Shin Bet security service, Avi Dichter. The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, would like to visit Washington in the next month or so.

The meeting of the aides was trumpeted here as a reward for Mr. Abbas's willingness to act to stop attacks on Israel and Israeli civilians after the Palestinian attack on the Karni crossing in Gaza two weeks ago. Senior Israeli officials freely acknowledge that Mr. Abbas's efforts in the last week, to deploy forces along Gaza's borders and to try to negotiate a cease-fire with the militants, have exceeded Israel's modest expectations.

Mr. Abbas's actions also increased diplomatic pressure on Israel to respond more quickly and significantly than Mr. Sharon may think is wise.

But both sides also needed to start necessary legwork for a substantive meeting between Mr. Abbas and Mr. Sharon, which could take place in about two weeks. Mr. Sharon's aide, Dov Weissglas, and the Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat will meet again next week, officials say. Both sides want a meeting that will produce tangible results, but both have different views of the main agenda, officials say.

Israel wants to concentrate on security, to press Mr. Abbas to move beyond a period of calm or even a formal cease-fire with militant groups like Hamas, and instead begin to confiscate arms and dismantle rocket factories. Israel also wants to discuss handing over security responsibility for some cities in the West Bank -- Ramallah, Jericho, Tulkarm and Qalqilya, at first -- to a reformed Palestinian security force.

Mr. Abbas reportedly told his security chiefs to be prepared to take control in these four cities, The Associated Press said. But Israeli officials say that such a move would most likely come out of a Sharon-Abbas meeting and would need to be well coordinated with the defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, who is abroad.

Mr. Mofaz said in an interview on Jan. 5 that he would like to hand over security to the Palestinians in all the major cities of the West Bank as soon as they were able to handle it. He has since spoken of the possibility of Israeli soldiers' leaving Gaza and all the cities of the West Bank by the end of this year.

The Palestinian side would like an Abbas-Sharon meeting to begin serious political talks toward a renewal of the peace plan called the road map. ''These new diplomatic contacts will not be serious until we start discussing permanent-status solutions to the conflict,'' said the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei.

Mr. Abbas also wants a more formal Israeli agreement to a cease-fire and a substantial release of prisoners, as Hamas and the other militants are demanding before they are willing to call this period of calm -- ''tahdia'' in Arabic -- a formal cease-fire, or ''hudna.''

Even the calm is fragile. In Gaza on Wednesday, there was violence as Palestinian policemen met with Israeli counterparts to take up positions in central Gaza, near Khan Yunis. A group of some 100 Jewish settlers protested the deployment and attacked the Palestinians, and then the Israeli Army and the police. The settlers threw stones and then slashed the tires of both Palestinian and Israeli police cars. Five settlers were arrested.

One Israeli official said, ''I fear this is just a sign of what's to come,'' and the Israeli radio said army officers were upset at the settlers. The settlers spoke of police brutality.

Mr. Sharon intends to pull out all the Israeli settlers from Gaza from July to September. Since last June, the number of settlers in Gaza has increased to 8,550 from 8,158, according to an Interior Ministry report.

There was other violence on Wednesday, with Palestinian militants firing two rockets toward Israel that landed harmlessly and with the killing of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl, Rahma Abu Shamas, apparently by Israeli fire when a round entered her house in Deir al Balah, which is near the Israeli settlement block of Gush Katif. The army said it was responding to mortar fire nearby and was investigating.

The Israeli border police killed a wanted Hamas militant, Mahir Abu Sneyna, and wounded two members of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Qalqilya only hours after Israeli officials said they would suspend pinpoint killings in response to quiet from Palestinian fighters. The troops fired at the car in which the three men were sitting. Residents said a bystander, Muhammad al-Bashar, 15, was badly wounded in the head during the exchange of gunfire.

The violence is not quite enough to disrupt this period of good feeling. But Mr. Abbas, speaking Wednesday evening to reporters, criticized the Qalqilya shooting. ''The Israelis are continuing their operations against our people at a time when our side is making a truce in the whole of Palestine,'' he said in Ramallah. ''The Israeli side must fulfill its responsibilities and stop all its operations, as it will endanger our efforts if they continue their operations against our land and our people.''